


A Flutter in the Night

by captain_staryeyed



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Finn is Ryan, Halloween, Mothlo, Mothman, Rey is Shane, based on an episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved, cryptid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-08-02 08:45:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16301903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captain_staryeyed/pseuds/captain_staryeyed
Summary: Their flashlights flickered out.“Rey…”The sound of what she could only describe as flapping wings resonated overhead.Thump.Rey and Finn find themselves in the woods near Point Pleasant, West Virginia trying to capture footage of the mysterious Mothman.





	1. Chapter 1

The moon shone overhead, making the world appear more menacing than it actually was. Rey and Finn, flashlights in hand, made their way through the woods. The calls of the owls and the crickets became white noise to her the further they crept into the forest.

A twig snapped.

“Was that you?”

“No…This was a bad idea, Rey,” Finn’s voice quivered.

Rey shone her flashlight on her friend. “Are you scared?” she grinned.

“ _Pfft_ , not a chance.”

She smirked. She had known Finn long enough to know he was bluffing. Unlike her, he believed in the existence of things such as aliens and Bigfoot. 

And the Mothman.

The entire reason why they were hiking in the dark woods near Pleasant Point, West Virginia.

A chill shot through Rey’s spine. What leaves that had yet to fall rustled overhead.

“Are you recording?” her best friend inquired.

Rey hastily pressed “record” on her night vision video camera. “Yes.”

“Poe’s gonna flip when we catch actual footage of Mothman.”

“If he exists.”

The two trudged forward in silence.

“What was that?” Finn said suddenly.

“Your imagination, probably.”

“No, I’m pretty sure I heard something.”

Their flashlights flickered out.

“ _Rey_ …”

The sound of what she could only describe as flapping wings resonated overhead.

_Thump._

She gasped.

A shadowy form with two glowing red eyes towered over her. 

Finn screamed and ran back in the direction of where they parked the car, leaving Rey, mouth agape, standing in front of the creature.

She shook her head to clear her from her daze.

Finn was right.

The Mothman was real.

She pointed her video camera at it. 

Through the lens of the camera, she could see the creature better.

Aside from the gigantic wings, demonic eyes, and fuzzy antennae, the Mothman  
looked… _human_.

_Cute_ , even. 

Rey chastised herself for this thought. Although, would finding a creature who was half-human attractive be inappropriate? After all, people did it all the time with mermaids.

His hair was long and unkempt. A scruffy beard covered his chin. It was not as long as one would expect an uncivilized man’s beard to be, giving Rey the impression that at some point he had ventured into town and shaved.

He donned a pair of mud-stained jeans and tattered tennis shoes. His bare chest did give the statue in town at least one accuracy. 

He was fit.

And probably extremely cold in the late October night.

The monster shuffled closer to her. Rey stood her ground, grateful that her nerves leaned more toward fight than flight. He bent down and inspected her face. 

His breath was hot on her skin. 

Rey shivered. She was not sure if it was due to the wind or their close proximity.

Her gaze held his luminous eyes, until he, satisfied with his inspection, backed away.

“So,” she started. “You’re real.”

He huffed. His attention dropped down to the camera she was holding.

Quick as a flash, he snatched the still recording camera from her grasp and shot up into the night sky.

As the beat of his wings faded, her flashlight flickered back on.

“Of course,” she grumbled. Picking up her torch, she set back to the car, hoping to find it and Finn still there.

 

The next morning, Rey returned to the spot where she had encountered the legendary cryptid. 

She left Finn, still sleeping in their shared motel room, blissfully unaware of her mission.

“Hey Mothman or whatever you call yourself!” she shouted, hoping that no hunters were around to hear her make a complete fool of herself. “I have something for you!”

She held a shopping bag containing a fleece blanket, scarf, mittens, and pompom-topped beanie  
above her head, showing the Mothman if he was around to see.

When she received no answer, she hung the sack in a tree for him to find later.

And if he did not find it, then hopefully someone who needed its contents would.

With that, she returned to town, wondering if what she saw last night had actually happened.

 

The two were on their way out of town. As they neared the spot where the Mothman had appeared to them, a thought occurred to her. 

“Finn, pull over here.”

“Why?”

“I want to see something.”

He turned on his blinker and pulled off to the side of the highway.

Rey hopped out of the car.

“Be back in a few minutes.”

“You’d better tell me why when you get back.”

“I will. I will.” She slammed the passenger door shut and started her trek back to where it all happened.

 

When she arrived, she was shocked to see the bag of clothes gone. The only trace left of it was a bit of its plastic that had gotten snagged on the tree limb.

Rey picked the piece of plastic off and scanned the area around her.

A glint of something shiny nestled in the fallen leaves caught her eye.

She approached the mysterious object.

A laugh burst from her lips.

Her camera.

The camera the Mothman had stolen.

He had returned it.

She picked it up. It was a little scratched up, but otherwise not _too_ damaged.

She opened the compartment up to retrieve the SD card before the creature changed his mind and came back to steal it again.

Her jaw dropped.

The SD card was gone.

“That little bugger…”


	2. Chapter 2

Ben Solo watched as the human girl picked up her video camera.

The instant he had first seen the human device in the palm of the girl’s hand, he had known what it was and what it could do. He had kept tabs on the human world ever since people settled near his woods hundreds of years ago. He had watched them and their tools evolve over time. He had learned and relearned their ever-changing customs.

Of course, he knew what the camera could do.

Without hesitation, he had snatched the infernal device from her hands and tore off into the night sky.

He would rather the human world not have concrete evidence of his existence. That being said, he didn't know why he had revealed himself to her and the human boy she was with.

Maybe it had something to do with the way she confidently carried herself even after he submerged them in complete darkness.

Maybe it was because, even from his altitude as he soared over them, her albeit humanly beauty cast a spell on him and drew him down to the earth.

Maybe he was just bored.

Whatever the case, he could not explain why he was now following her car down the interstate and far, far away from the only home he had ever known.

 

There was a knock on her door.

Rey's eyes shot open. She reached for her phone and checked the time.

_Three-thirty in the bloody morning._

Rey groaned and rolled over in bed. No one could possibly be knocking on her door this early in the day. It must have been the building settling or something like that. 

Just as she was drifting back off to sleep, the noise started again.

Her heart stilled. It was unmistakable. Someone was at her door.

Rey considered ignoring it, but what if it was Rose. What if her roommate had gotten back early from her trip to her parents' place, and what if she had lost her key and her phone had died, successfully preventing her from texting Rey to unlock the door for her.

Or what if it was a burglar checking to see if the place was empty before breaking in.

Rey grabbed the bat she kept beside her bed and crept towards her apartment’s entrance.

She made sure she was extra quiet as she neared the door, not wanting to alert any nefarious visitors of her presence just yet. She glanced through the peep-hole and sucked in a breath.

She looked away, blinking her eyes in rapid succession, then turned back to the peep-hole.

This time when she moved her gaze away from the door, she rubbed her eyes with her free hand.

By the third time she looked through the peep-hole, she laughed and opened the door.

“Have you come to take back my camera?”

The Mothman gave her a blank look.

“Can you understand me?”

He nodded.

A breeze of cold air pushed past her into her apartment. She took note of the creature’s involuntary shiver and waved him inside.

“Don’t need the neighbors talking about how I’m letting strays in at three in the morning,” she joked, closing the door behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, no, I think this is going to be a multi-chapter fic. I don't have much of a plan for this story, except that it will be finished by Halloween, so I can have enough time to focus on the fic I'm hoping to post during the month of December.  
> Thank you for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

She led him into the small kitchen, busying herself with making tea. Ben stood by the entryway, awkwardly watching her. He had never been invited into a human’s home before. He made sure to not let his wings hit any of the various nick-knacks on the walls and the counter.

“My name’s Rey, by the way.” She was watching him now, a faint smile on her face. “You can sit down if you’d like.”

She gestured to the table and turned back to the tea. Ben carefully took a seat at the cluttered kitchen table. He knew that humans tended to make messes, but seeing the girl's disorganized home left him speechless. Papers and journals and pens and dishes lay scattered on the table and countertops. Jackets and blankets hung from chair backs. Magnets pinned hundreds of notes and leaflets to the refrigerator. He wondered if he owned more possessions, he would be as untidy as a human.

“How did you find me?” Rey set two mugs of microwaved earl grey on the table top, pushing a letter addressed to a Ms. Tico out of the way.

He just stared at her.

“I know you can understand me. Can you speak?”

Ben debated responding to her. On one hand, it would be nice to have a conversation with someone other than himself. He couldn’t recall the last time he had spoken to another intelligent being. On the other hand, the less he revealed to her about himself, the better. He had already appeared to her twice; he couldn’t risk letting anything more about his existence slip.

Instead of answering her, he reached for the mug she had placed in front of him. As soon as he made contact with the handle, he jerked his hand back.

“Ouch, that is hot!” he exclaimed through gritted teeth.

Rey’s eyes lit up. “So you can speak!”

“No, I--” he slapped his hand over his mouth. _So much for keeping quiet._

“Why were you pretending to be unable to speak?" Rey gasped, "Were you hoping to get me to act out what I was saying? Because I’ve only fallen for that once...no, twice. I’ve only fallen for that twice.”

“Why would you need to act things out if you knew I could understand you?” Ben, abandoning his act, inquired.

Her shoulders slumped. “Touché. So, how _did_ you find me?”

“I followed your car. Then when you got the airport, I followed your plane.”

Rey furrowed her brow. “It’s a couple thousand miles from West Virginia to California. How are your wings still intact?”

“I’ve had hundreds of years of practice.”

“You’ve been alive for hundreds of years?”

“About five-hundred, yes.”

Rey’s eyes were as wide as saucers, but if she had any questions, she didn’t ask them.

The two sipped their tea in silence. 

“We really need to get you some proper clothes,” she blurted out.

He furrowed his brow at the unexpected statement. “What's wrong with the ones I have?”

“First off, they should've been pitched years ago for the state they are in. Secondly, you can't be walking around half dressed. You're going to freeze to death.”

“I’m used to the cold. I’ve survived this long.”

“My roommate can sew. She’s _really_ into cosplay. I’m sure she can help make you a shirt that can accommodate your wings.”

“Why do I need a shirt?”

“Well, it’s not...proper to be walking around everywhere without a shirt on.”

“So?”

She blushed and averted her eyes, “Also, your bare chest is really distracting.”

“My chest makes you uncomfortable, but my wings and antenna don’t?”

“One thing at a time, man.”

He chuckled.

They finished the rest of their tea in silence. All of a sudden, Rey yawned. 

For the first time that night Ben noticed how tired she looked. Her eyes were puffy, and her movements had been slowing down over the past few minutes.

“It’s getting late, do you want to take the couch?”

“I...what?”

“Do you want to sleep on the couch?” Rey repeated. “I mean, I assume you're staying nearby until you’ve recovered from your flight in. You can stay here if you’d like--unless you have somewhere else to be or...”

Truth be told, he hadn’t thought of what he would do after he found her. He had never been good at planning ahead. That’s what got him discovered by the human world in the first place.

He knew he should refuse. He had interacted with her too much.

Part of him wondered if this was a trap.

But her eyes were so full of hope, and what harm could one night spent in a human's home do? A small voice inside him told him that he shouldn’t trust the human, but he had never been given any reason not to trust the humans. He had never gotten close enough for betrayal. 

He agreed.


	4. Chapter 4

He woke up to the smell of coffee and the sizzling of bacon in a frying pan. Ben groaned and, sitting up, stretched his wings which had been cramped on Rey’s compact couch. 

After popping his joints, he slowly trudged into the kitchen. Rey stood next to the stove scrolling on her phone. Her eyes lit up when she saw him.

“Oh, good, you’re up. I made us breakfast. I wasn’t sure what you eat.” She platted the bacon and took it over to the newly cleared table. “I thought fruit and toast and bacon would be a safe bet.”

“I’ve never had bacon or toast.”

“And you’ve been alive how long?” she teasingly gapped at him.

 

She looked up from her half-finished breakfast. “So, Mothman…”

“Ben.”

“Hm?”

“My name’s Ben,” he reiterated. “Sorry. I don’t know where that title came from, but I thought that if we are going to be friends, you should know my _real_ name.”

“Friends?”

Under his shaggy hair, Ben’s ears burned. “Yeah, sorry...um..I’m no good at this...I mean, do you want to, that is?”

Rey, although amused by his rambling, saved him, “Yes, I’d like to be friends.” 

Shoulders sagging, he took another bite of toast to keep himself from saying anything else.

The sound of a key entering its lock filled the silence. 

“Rose,” she whisper-screamed. She grabbed his hand and dragged him to her room.

“The flower?”

“My roommate.”

Confusion twisted his face. “You’re roommates with a flower?”

“No, she’s a girl. Her name is Rose.” Rey shoved him into her closet. “Hide in here. I’ll get you out when the coast is clear and you can leave without being seen.”

"Leave? Have I overstayed my welcome?"

“Rey? Are you home?” Rose’s voice called out.

“Yes, just a moment!” Rey answered her. She turned back to Ben, “No, just, Rose will freak out if she sees you. I'll help you get out of here, and we can meet up later, okay?” 

Before he could respond, she shut the closet door on him and joined her friend in their shared living room.

 

“Did you have someone over?” Rey found her friend in the kitchen eyeing the two plates littered with half-eaten breakfast food.

“Nope,” she blurted, scurrying to come up with a believable lie. “I had set out two plates of food--one for me and one for you--but your’s was getting cold. I didn’t want to waste food, so I ate them both.”

“Before you finished your own plate?” Rose raised an eyebrow. “You know, if you had a boy over last night, it’s okay to tell me.”

She cringed inwardly. _Should’ve gone with that._ After all, it was sort of true.

_Thunk._

Rose’s eyes widened. “What was that?”

“Nothing,” Rey squeaked.

“It sounded like it came from your room.” Rose headed to Rey’s bedroom.

“Probably just the wind or the building settling.” She scurried after her overly-curious roommate, only to watch helplessly as Rose entered her room.

_Thump._

“Rey, are you hiding a boy in your closet?”

At that moment, her closet door burst open. Wings and limbs flailing to find purchase, Ben, clinging to an old sweater, fell out of the cramped space.

“What the fu--” Rose fainted.

Rey looked from her unconscious friend to the cryptid trying to detangle himself from her sweater.

_Well, that solves one problem._


	5. Chapter 5

“Is she dead?” Ben hovered over Rose’s limp body.

“Nah, she’s fine,” Rey sat cross-legged on her bed, flipping through a wildlife magazine. “She just has a flair for the dramatics. Had a leading role in the past few plays she’s been in. Sometimes I think she doesn’t realize when she’s on stage and when she’s off. Heck, she monologued about her undying love for Finn on their first date.”

“I did not!” Rose, still feigning a fainting spell, protested.

Rey barely glanced up from her magazine. “That’s not what Finn said.”

“You know he’s one to embellish things. Besides, he loved it. Why else did we go on a second date?”

“Blackmail?”

The shorter girl grabbed one of her roommate’s discarded socks off her floor and threw it at her.

“Hey!” the other girl shouted, grabbing one of her throw pillows and making good use of its name.

Rose, noticing the strange man in the room, nodded to Ben. “Okay, but seriously but what-- _who_ \--is he?”

“Well, you know the creature Finn and I was searching for on our trip this week? This is him.”

“Hello, I’m Ben.” He helped Rose to her feet.

“Ok--wait, so he’s the Mothman? That's so awesome! Little weird--no offense--but awesome. Wait, I thought you were just going to try to film him, why did you bring him back?”

“I’d prefer Ben, really,” he mumbled.

“He kind of followed me home.”

Rose looked between the two. “I ship it,” she finally decided.

“ _Rose_.”

“I’m just saying,” she giggled under her friend’s death glare. Rose schooled herself. “So is there a reason why he’s not wearing a shirt, or...?” Rose waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

“ _No, Rose_ ,” she scolded her friend. “I was hoping you could help us with that.”

 

 

The whirl of Rose’s sewing machine filled the small apartment. Rose, hair pulled back into a messy ponytail, sat at the desk in her room, carefully altering one of the Goodwill shirts they had found. The metallic taste of the pins she held in her teeth made her hyper-conscious of how easily she could swallow the tiny daggers.

In the kitchen, Rey filled the kettle up with water and placed it on the burner. While waiting for the water to boil, she laid out six slices of bread and handed Ben a knife and a jar of peanut butter, grabbing the jar of jelly and a knife for herself.

“Can you spread this on three of the bread slices?”

Ben watched her as she spread jelly on her slices, then followed her example.

The two worked in silence until the kettle whistled.

“So, five-hundred years...that’s a long time,” Rey said as she let their tea steep. 

“Um, yeah, I guess.”

“What did you do in all of that time? I mean, you had a lot of time to kill. You couldn’t have spent all of it hiding alone in the forest the entire time.” Rey’s eyes widened,” Unless there are more of you. More moth...people.”

“No, just me.”

“Oh.” Rey recognized the loneliness heavy in his voice. Her heart strained within her chest, tugging against its cage of bone and muscle. She watched him from across the kitchen table, unaware that she was leaning closer to him than she had been before.

“You’re using too much peanut butter.”

Ben set the jar down and looked at the mess he had made. Uneven globs of peanut butter covered his bread slices, making it look more like a cake iced by a child than a sandwich.

His antennae twitched, and his cheeks reddened. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly.

“It’s fine, I probably should’ve explained it better.” She took his discarded knife and raked at least an inch of peanut butter off each slice, scraping the excess back into the jar.

The two lapsed into a comfortable quiet, so Rey startled when he spoke again.

“I’ve never been good with people. I left my family when I was young and haven't been around anyone ever since,” Ben stared at the countertop, losing himself in memories. “You humans have always fascinated me. All of the things you've been through, plague, war, loss. You continue to grow and create...Sometimes I would try to make myself known to the humans, but each time they would run off in fright--or fight back.”

Rey watched him fiddle with the bread’s twist tie. She thought back to when they first met nearly a week ago. She wondered not for the first time about why he chose to follow her home. 

He continued, his voice breaking her from her thoughts. “I never hurt anyone, well not _too_ bad. But then that bridge collapsed…”

He trailed off. The screams of ghosts still haunted him after all this time.

Not knowing what else to do, Rey took his hand, hoping to give him at least an ounce of comfort. 

His eyes widened as he looked down at their joined hands, but he didn't pull away.

“That must've been hard seeing all of those things…” she cringed at her phrasing.

He chuckled, “Yeah. If there's one thing I have learned in all my years: don't get on the bad side of a witch. Especially one that will curse you with immortality.”

“Wait, what?”

“Crushed her gardenias and she cursed me to cease aging until I found belonging. Crazy old Maz,” he muttered the last part under his breath.

“So like _Beauty and the Beast_?”

Ben gave her a puzzled look.

Rey grinned wickedly. “You’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

He was not sure what she was talking about, but Ben could not find himself to be concerned. In fact, if he was not mistaken, he felt eager at the prospect of spending more time with her. This foreign feeling baffled him, but he shoved whatever questions that plagued him out of his mind to deal with later.

Suddenly, Rose burst into the kitchen, “Finished!”

She held up the altered shirt above her head like a trophy. With a pincushion on her wrist, tape measure hung around her neck and her hair floating in a disarray, Rey thought she looked more like a manic sewing fairy than a girl.

“You should just have to try it on one more time, so we can make sure it fits.” 

Ben took the black shirt form her and slid it over his head. The slits for his wings stopped just before the tops of his wings.

“Turn around,” Rose ordered.

He complied. Rose stepped forward and fastened the series of snaps at the bottom of each wing slit. When she was done, Rey could not even tell that there had been two long cuts in the shirt to begin with. 

“Rose, you’re a miracle worker.”

“I know, but how do you like it?” she turned to Ben.

“Surprisingly comfortable, but something I’ll have to get used to.” 

 

 

The doorbell rang.

“Could you get that, Rose?” Rey called out from behind the TV. She was making some last minute fixes to their television set before their annual Halloween horror movie marathon.

Almost a month had passed since Ben had flown into her life. In the time, he had learned how to cook and clean and do other things to help out, since he could not leave the apartment out of fear of being seen. Of course, that did not stop him from going out at night when his wings were masked by the dark. During these nightly walks with Rey (and sometimes Rose), he wore sunglasses to shield his glowing eyes. 

Over time, he had become more comfortable being so near to humans. Despite this, he longed for the peace and comfort his forest. Somedays the yearning grew so great, that he would consider leaving his new home. But for some reason he could not explain, the longing died each time Rey flashed a smile at him or took his hand. So he stayed.

“I’m kind of busy,” Rose replied, her hands covered in raw pizza dough. “Ben, can you answer the door. It should just be Finn.”

Ben, who had been helping Rose with the homemade pizzas, slung the dishtowel he had been using over his shoulder and left the kitchen.

He one of Rey’s the baseball hats on his head to conceal his antennae and made sure to keep his wings hidden when he answered the door. Although he was becoming more comfortable around humans--well, at least around Rey and Rose--he was wary of what their neighbors might do if they saw him.

“I brought _boo_ ze--” the pun died on Finn’s tongue when he laid eyes on Ben.

“You must be Finn?”

The other man nodded. “Yeah, and you must be Ben?”

“Yeah. How did you know?”

Finn smirked. “Rey has been talking nonstop about you for the past few weeks.”

“Have not!” Rey hollered from inside the house.

Ben opened the door wider and stepped aside, letting Finn inside.

“Do too, Peanut.”

Rose, wiping her hands on a paper towel, entered the living room. She walked straight up to her boyfriend and, resting her arms on his shoulders, gave him a peck on the lips. “Hey, babe.”

“Hey,” he grinned and held up a case of hard lemonade. “I brought drinks.”

“Ben, can you take that to the kitchen?” she asked, not taking her eyes off Finn.

He grabbed the case, and it was then that Finn got a good look at Rey’s new friend.

“Nice costume. How’d you make those wings?”

“Not a costume,” Rose smirked.

“What do you mean not a…”

Ben’s eyes flashed red and he flapped his wings. The other man stumbled backward.

Rose giggled at the stupefied look on her boyfriend’s face. “Come help me with the pizzas and I’ll explain.”

Without taking his eyes off Ben, he nodded and let Rose lead him into the kitchen.

Once they had left the room, Rey emerged from behind the television. Straightening her witch hat, she smiled. “I think he took that rather well.”

“Are you sure?”

A metal bowl clattered on the kitchen floor.

“Yep. Hey,” she took his hand in her’s. “It’s okay, he’ll come around. Just give him time to wrap his head around it. And if he doesn’t, I’ll make him.”

She beamed up at him, and he could not help but smile back.

Save for when the pizza was ready, she held his hand throughout the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this took so long to update. Life got crazy and I wanted this to be the best it could be before posting it.  
> I said I would end this fic by Halloween, but I have one more chapter planned. I probably won't be done with it for another few days, but don't worry, the epilogue is coming.  
> Thank you for reading and have a spoopy Halloween!


	6. Epilogue

~Two years later~

 

 

The campfire crackled, bathing the three campers in its light. The stars were just barely visible through the leaves overhead. Somewhere in the distance, an owl hooted.

Rey sat with her back pressed up against Ben’s chest. His wings wrapped around them, shielding them from the breeze that sliced through their light jackets.

“Remind me again why we have to go Bigfoot hunting in the middle of November?” Rey asked the man sitting across from them.

“It’s the Squach-iest season,” Finn said as if that explained everything. "You understand, Ben."

"He's right. They prefer the cold," he yawned.

The three of them had been up for hours. Usually, he was used to getting very little sleep, but somehow he seemed to be catching the human disease Rey had just gotten over. A "cold," she had called it.

He dropped his head and buried his face in Rey’s neck, taking her earthy scent that had become more pronounced ever since they had moved to the woods over a year ago. Something about the way she smelled comforted him, like the way flying through the open air comforted him.

He did not spend too long thinking about this.

Rey leaned her head on his, electing a groan from their friend.

“Do you two really have to show so much PDA?” Finn groaned.

Rey threw him a look. “You wouldn’t be saying that if Rose were here.”

A short while after Ben had taken up residence with the two women, Finn had proposed to Rose. A few months after that, the two got married, and Rey and Ben moved to a cabin in the woods so that he could freely walk about without having to make sure no nosey neighbors were around.

Rose had said that she had wanted to come with them on their excursion to find another cryptid. However, she was stuck helping her extremely pregnant sister, Paige. Secretly, Rey thought she was glad to not have to spend the night outside in the cold.

Finn stoked the fire.

“You wanna turn in?” Rey murmured against his hair.

His antenna tickled her nose as he nodded.

She started to help Ben up when they heard movement in the distance.

Finn’s head shot up. He stared in the direction of the noise. “What was that?”

“Probably nothing,” Rey snorted. “Get us if you actually hear something.”

A guttural roar echoed through the forest.

The trio froze.

Tree limbs quaked as the unknown creature neared them. Finn fell off of his log seat in his hurry to grab his video camera out of his backpack.

Shakely, he held the camera up to where the branches were parting.

Ben, now wide awake and alert, stood up, ready to defend his friends from whatever monster lurked in the woods.

A tall, hairy figure emerged from behind the trees. 

Ben dropped his defensive stance. 

“Uncle Chewie?”

**Author's Note:**

> probably should've clarified this, but the reason why Mothman Ben's not wearing a shirt is that he physically can't because of his wings.


End file.
